Solar shading is an essential component to good passive energy design for buildings. Traditionally, solar design has come in the form of static shading devices applied to building openings or in building forms that accommodate such strategies in their basic shape and orientation. New technologies, however, have created adaptive solar shading that responds to lighting conditions, time of day, and the presence of building occupants. Although active shading systems currently exist, they tend to rely on complex mechanical solutions to architectural problems. It would therefore be desirable to have alternative systems that provide solar shading.